RENO, Nv. Representatives from GreenPower Motor are presenting the results of the West Virginia electric school bus testing program to the School Transportation News Expo in Nevada this week. Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, Mark Nestlen, said this is a key opportunity for the future of GreenPower Motor and the normalization of electrified school bus transportation.
“This is somewhat known as the “Superbowl” of school bus expos,” Nestlen said. “It’s the largest in the country, and those who are anything in school bus transportation are here.”
The value of the West Virginia tests was in the terrain, weather conditions, and successful operations in relatively remote areas. The buses were put into the hands of 18 school systems with little extra instruction to make sure the buses were used similarly to the way conventional buses had been used.
“We put the bus out there so that not just people from West Virginia knew, but the eyes of the nation were on West Virginia, and they now know how that bus performed in West Virginia,” Nestlen said.
Nestlen said the GreenPower Motor presentation at the Reno event was one of the most widely attended at the conference because of the exchange of real-world data. Two people from the West Virginia school systems also attended the event to relate their experiences, along with an actual Beast and a Nano Beast.
“Those buses traveled a little more than 32,000 miles in the 18 counties over the nine-month testing period, and there were more than 100 professional school bus drivers in West Virginia that drove those buses,” Nestlen said.
The buses were able to average 140 to 150 miles per charge and a report of a peak performance of 167 miles on a charge. The use of air conditioning did not significantly increase electrical usage, but using the heater in winter conditions reduced the performance to 70 to 80 miles on a charge.
Some of the test data is also being used internally to improve future models and will be incorporated on the production line late this year.
“Some of the changes being made in that next generation that will begin that production line are changes based on that pilot project,” Nestlen said.
Nestlen said the buses are in production at their South Charleston factory, and this fall the finished products will begin rolling out to customers in West Virginia. During the event in Reno, another major purchase from one of the largest school districts in the country is expected to be announced.
The state of New York is expected to be a lucrative market in the coming years, according to Nestlen. New York has 50,000 school buses on the road that must go electric by 2025, and by 2027, electric school buses will be required by law.
“We are employing right now around the 50 number as we start the production,” Nestlan said. “We’re going to need that number to go up to 65 or 70 by the end of the year when that BEAST production starts; we’re still on track to hit those 200 jobs by the end of next year that we promised the state.”
Last year, GreenPower Motor produced 123 and generated $39.7 million in revenue and a gross profit of $7.3 million; both figures have just about doubled from the previous year.